Other Great Orgs

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

CHICKS ROCK! is happy to have Kristina back as a guest blogger this week. Kristina Leonardi is the founder of The Women’s Mosaic. She is a coach and speaker in the areas of career development, work/life wellness and personal growth.

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that
until I changed myself, I could not change others.~ Nelson
Mandela

Revolution is the evolution of humans into a higher
humanity. ~ Grace Lee Boggs

Those of you who know me or have been reading PGG for a while are aware that my passion and mission in life
has always been to contribute to world peace, mostly through my work best
expressed in my mantra that personal transformation is the key to social
transformation.

So it should come as no surprise that I profoundly relate to and revere the
lives of these two nonagenarians, Nelson Mandela who died last week at age 95,
and the 98-year-old activist and author Grace Lee Boggs. They literally embody this philosophy in
every cell of their beings; they have demonstrated it externally with their
activism and sacrifice for racial equality and social justice, and
internally by the wisdom they have gained and generously share from
nearly a century of experience, observation, and, most importantly,
reflection.

Both started out as 'radicals', and were branded as terrorists with the
requisite FBI/CIA files (Mandela was even on the US terrorism watch list until
2008!) because they initially saw the only way to overthrow the entrenched power
structure was by employing the more literal and sometimes violent tactics of
revolution through organized movements and a spirit of rebellion. But through
trial and error, incarceration, and maturity, they eventually evolved;
they gave themselves permission to change their minds, learn and grow in
light of new information, experimentation and once again, reflection -
ultimately coming to the conclusion that in order to change the world, they
would have to change themselves.

They came to understand that indeed humanity is made up of
humans and that humans were going to have to deal with other humans in
order to get anything done. So we'd better be the best we can be as individuals
and try to get along and get past our differences and disagreements, because the
reality is that we must co-exist harmoniously - whether in a racially
divided African country, a rundown bankrupt American city, or in your very own
household.

We are living in extraordinary times, and it is no accident
that you are who you are at this moment in history.

What does your humanity mean to you? As our world
continues to go through turbulent changes and upheavals, it will be up to us
individually and collectively to do our part to 'tear down' where necessary and
rebuild a more enlightened society that reflects our evolved humanity.
But we have to start with ourselves and do what we can in our
immediate environments to demonstrate our own revolution - which, by the way,
does not happen overnight or with a magic pill, silver bullet, or special
app.

Only through keen observation, deep reflection, and inner and outer
sweating effort and energy over a long period of time directed towards
improving ourselves and serving others that true transformation can take place.
Then, if we're lucky, by the time we reach our 90's we can look back and see how
our journey has positively and productively unfolded in both a personal and
political way, and be proud of what we accomplished and the legacy we will leave
behind.

Wondering how it will all go down if you take up the cause? Give
me a buzz and I will incite a riot in your heart to make the most of what you
got, so at the end of the day you know it's gonna be alright!

***************************************

I am so grateful to have learned about and met Grace Lee Boggs just two years ago. She passed away
yesterday at the age of 100.

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